Abstract
Histology laboratory at Tulane University School of Medicine (TUSOM) adapted to Covid-19 social distancing restrictions by creating an entirely online virtual laboratory session. Due to potential for decreased engagement within a restricted online environment, efforts have been made to increase interaction between students and instructors. A 30-minute interactive clicker session, during which students respond to questions via polling applications and then receive immediate feedback from instructor, was incorporated into each histology lab. Our hypothesis is that the interactive clicker session 1) did not impact attendance, 2) did not decrease exam performance, and 3) positively contributed to students’ histology learning experience. Attendance, module exam grades, satisfaction ratings and surveys from first-year medical students at TUSOM from years 2018-2019, 2019-2020, and 2020-2021 were analyzed. Content analysis was performed for each module survey since the transition to virtual & the incorporation of the clicker session. The transition to completely virtual labs and incorporation of interactive clicker session did not significantly impact attendance, reporting at 90-95% across all modules. Exam grades were not significantly impacted, and in fact a significant increase in academic performance was observed. Mean satisfaction scores increased compared to previous years. Majority of students’ comments were positive (83.4%), with 4.8% explicitly mentioning the clicker questions as the main positive element of the session. Based on our findings, we believe the interactive clicker session is a beneficial tool for histology instruction, could be easily implemented by other institutions, and has potential for positively enhancing the learning process across undergraduate medical curriculum.
Presenters
Lauren BalentineStudent, MS Graduate Anatomy, MS Clinical Anatomy, Tulane University School of Medicine, Louisiana, United States Austin Couvillion
Teaching Assistant , Anatomy , Tulane University School of Medicine , Louisiana, United States Lu Xu
Assistant Professor, Structural and Cellular Biology, Tulane medical school, United States
Details
Presentation Type
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session
Theme
KEYWORDS
Virtual Learning, Histology, Medical Education, Undergraduate Medical, Curriculum, Interactive, Laboratory
